It was in 2006 when the president of the Spanish government José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and the then Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan co-sponsored an initiative of preventive diplomacy aimed at reducing tensions between the West and the Islamic world and fighting against international terrorism for others Roads that were not the military.

The Alliance of Civilizations was born with the support of the United Nations and the interest and approval of most (military) world powers. Turkey became the third largest trading partner in Spain and the third largest importer of Spanish weapons, behind Thailand and the United States. Since the nineties, the Spanish State has supplied Turkey with military transport aircraft through the company Construcciones Aeronáuticas (CASA), F-100 military frigates through Bazán (Navantia), artillery equipment from Santa Bárbara Systems and electronic war material of Indra.

Since then, the voices that question the export of military material to Turkey have been growing. The main reason is the violation of human rights perpetrated by the Turkish state in the interior of the country and the underlying suspicions that, from Turkey, it would be sending weapons to various Jihad groups involved in the Syrian war.

The government of Ankara continues a bloody military offensive against the Kurdish civil resistance which had been engaged in an advanced peace process, provoking a resurgence of the guerilla PKK and its social base, with attacks on Bakur and Cizre (Turkish Kurdistan) and through military invasion, indiscriminate civilian shelling, total blockade with walls, etc. in the Kurdish cantons of Efrin and Kobane, inside Syria.

Critical voices point out that Erdogan uses weapons to violate human rights within the country and that it also provides several Jewish gihadist groups.

victims-of-erdogans-cizre-massacres.png

Last February, a report from the United Nations strengthened evidence of the violations committed by Turkish security forces operating in Turkish Kurdistan. The report denounced disappearances, tortures, violations of women, the forced displacement of more than 355,000 people and the expropriation of houses and heritage sites destroyed by Kurds such as Nusaybin and South.

According to the document, during the period between July 2015 and December 2016, military operations in the area have left 2,000 people dead – 800 members of Turkish security forces and 1,200 suspected PKK militants, according to the Turkish government . The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, criticized the lack of involvement of the Ankara government when it comes to clarifying the facts, “since it has not opened any Formal investigation nor has it clarified the responsibilities of the Turkish military actions committed in this period. “

Military climbing, business climbing

As in every good movement of geopolitical and economic opportunism, the militarist escalation in the region has been matched, in recent years, with an increase in arms exports to Turkey by different EU countries, including the ‘Spanish State. The government of Mariano Rajoy maintains good political and economic relations with Turkey, with bilateral trade that exceeded 10,000 million euros in 2016.Erdogan ordered police to attack the 2017 Pride Celebration

In return, coinciding with the Turkish military offensives in the Kurdish regions, the presence of branded weapons Spain in the country has consolidated. According to data from the Centro de Estudios para la Paz, in 2015, Spain was the world’s sixth largest provider of weapons in Turkey, mainly through military aircraft, small arms and ammunition, bombs, Rockets and missiles, war ships and electronic and software components.

A UN report denounces disappearances, tortures, violations of women, the forced displacement of more than 355,000 people and the expropriation of houses in places such as Nusaybin and South
The main commercial agent in the negotiations and the sales of Spanish armament abroad has been the ex- Spanish defense minister Pedro Morenés, who years ago had held positions in companies of armament like Instalaza, manufacturer of military equipment of Infantry and the illicitized dispersal bombs.

In the Turkish case, the minister held meetings with his counterpart Ismet Yilmaz to negotiate the sale of military frigates, among them, that of the amphibious ship Juan Carlos I, with a design that was awarded Navantia for 140 million euros and started construction last month in Turkey.

Indra’s headquarters in Barcelona appeared full of paintings on the second anniversary of the events of Tarajal

An outstanding case was the one that uncovered the year 2015 the Turkish daily Cumhuriyet, which nowadays has all the executive positions jailed by espionage.

The eurofighter in Turkey.. lucrative business

The newspaper would have proved that Maxam Anadolu, a Turkish subsidiary of the Spanish armament multinational Maxam, issued an explosives convoy to Syria. The official final destination was Jordan, but it was an almost impossible route to end successfully, as it went through areas with the presence of Jihadist militias. A part of the cargo disappeared in the stretch between the Turkish factory and the border. According to ViceNews research, the purchase was billed through a ghost company in Jordan.

Sales in Turkey are framed in an expansionary campaign of international arms trade started in 2011, which places Spain at the forefront of the world ranking of exporters, according to the SIPRI 2015 report. The Delàs Center says that 24% of these exports have been destined for countries involved in the Middle East conflict.

Spanish Cyberarmament in Turkey

Indra Sistemas, the Spanish giant specializing in electronics and security and defense technologies, operates in an impressive glass building located in the 22 @ Barcelona technology district. For years Indra has important businesses in Turkey – many of them for military purposes – and already has two subsidiaries in the country.

High positions in this company were Josep Pujol Ferrusola or the current director of the subsidiary in Catalonia, Manuel Brufau, brother of Antoni Brufau, president of Repsol, a company with significant shareholder bonds with La Caixa.

In March 2016, Indra awarded a contract of 38.5 million euros to renew and expand the Turkish airspace surveillance network. Indra also won the competition organized by the Turkish Ministry of Defense for the provision of a mobile laboratory prepared to carry out an analytical identification of nuclear-radiological, biological and chemical threats. And it was erected as a contractor for the construction of two Turkish pilot training centers in Ankara and Istanbul through the hyper-flight simulators of the military helicopters SeaHawk and BlackHawk.

In the Peninsula, the company controls 80% of the Spanish Missile Society, a company that was run by former Minister Pedro Morenés until 2011. “Indra’s sales volume has grown exponentially From its birth thanks to the protectionism of the State and the agreements like provider of the majority of new technologies in electronics to companies of the military sector, “wrote the researcher in peace and disarmament Pere Ortega in the magazine Papeles.

And he added: “Like other large companies of the oligopoly of military industries in Spain (Airbus Defense & Space or Navantia), Indra receives multiple grants and subsidies from the Ministry of Industry and the autonomous administrations where its factories are located “.

Recently, the company announced that it had won the competition for the installation of control and surveillance systems, maritime border control and control of the Turkic border. He has experience: Indra is the main contractor for the Ceuta and Melilla tanks. According to Jordi Calvo, coordinator and researcher at the Center Delàs:

“Indra’s business growth is also due to the fact that it has benefited from the awarding of contracts to militarize European borders. Indra is part of the European Organization for Security – one of the pressure and influence groups in the configuration of EU security and defense policies – where it transfers the idea that migratory movements must be responded with urgency and forcefulness ” .

Although Turkey is a member of NATO, Calvo advocates “stop arms exports to the country, as they are fueling other groups and conflicts in the area.” However, the line of the Spanish government follows the position expressed by Morenés a few years ago, when he defended the sale of weapons to countries that do not comply with Spanish law, which explicitly prohibits the export of arms to states where these Can be used for internal repression or violation of human rights: “Nothing is perfect in politics or in the world, but if at least it tends to improve things, it is quite permissible and legitimate to maintain contacts in the political sphere And commercial “.

JIMDUU, a state-run body that authorizes exports, does not provide the name of the companies behind

The Spanish State continues in leading positions of the dubious world ranking as an arms exporter. According to the latest Spanish Statistics report on the export of defense material, other material and dual-use products and technologies of the year 2016, prepared by the Secretary of State for Commerce, Rises to 4,052 million euros, which is a new historic record in the export of Spanish weapons.

According to the report, which the Center Delàs de Estudios para la Paz pointed out a few days ago, these exports lead to worrying trends, such as the consolidation of the Middle East as the priority market for Spanish arms material. In total, these countries have acquired weapons worth 647.97 million euros, representing 16% of total exports.

Secondly, the Delàs center warns of the increase in Spanish arms exports to Asian countries, which have acquired 10% of total exports. Countries like Malaysia, Kazakhstan, Thailand, India, South Korea, the Philippines, Pakistan, Singapore and Vietnam. Especially disturbing, for the center. These are the acquisitions made by South Korea, where 27% of total export authorizations are allocated.

The business opportunism of the Spanish government

Jordi Calvo, coordinator of the Delàs Center, is very critical of the role of JIMDUU, the state body in charge of authorizing these exports and highlights the opacity as a constant practice of this organ, as part of its Resolutions and acts are secret. However, it points to the fact that companies behind these exports are not known, “but it is understood that there are the main companies in the oligopoly of military industries in Spain, such as Navantia or Airbus.”

“The probability that these weapons exported are being used in the bombings in Kurdish, Syrian, Iraqi or Yemen cities is very high,” according to the Delàs center

The Delàs report also considers that the situation of instability that is experienced in the region – with the support of countries such as Saudi Arabia or the UAE towards insurgent groups that fight in the Syrian armed conflict or as part of The military coalition that is intervening in Yemen – allows these exports to be considered illegal.

He also mentions sales to Iraq as an instrument of military intervention. With the argument of favoring the fight against the Islamic State, the rearmament of Iraq has been contributed and the arms exports to that country reached 2016, to 52.69 million euros (85 , 42 million in 2015).

Legislation that exists, but without application

The same Spanish and European legislation on arms trade explicitly prohibits exports to countries that can use weapons for internal repression, to feed conflicts in the region or to violate human rights.

But what can be done in the face of repeated omissions in the application of Spanish and European law? Calvo emphasizes that it is oneIssues that occur in most exporting countries, not exclusively in Spain. And he emphasizes that a possible measure could be to draw from the governmental space the decision-making capacity and approval of these exports, often political decisions – and undergo more control and parliamentary follow-up. In this way, the government would be forced to be more transparent and would increase the difficulty to operate.

In this regard, the researcher wanted to highlight the boom in the growth of arms sales authorizations since 2012, when the former defense minister Pedro Morenés was in charge.

Morenés had a long experience and career in the armaments sector and had held positions in companies such as Instalaza, a manufacturer of military infantry equipment and the illegal dispersion pumps.Jordi Calvo, from the Delàs Center, highlights the Boom in the growth of arms sales authorizations since 2012, when the former defense minister Pedro Morenes held the position Calvo also emphasized the role of civil society as a tool for pressure, denunciation and control of The actions of the government.

“Whether for electoral reasons, political or image calculations, the pressure exerted last year from all fronts against the sale of arms in Saudi Arabia has had an effect, as is observed in the decrease in exports no To this country the last year.

“Finally, as the report highlights, control of arms exports is a political and humanitarian challenge. “It is not acceptable in any way that Spanish weapons be used as a tool of foreign policy and, even more, if that means bringing about violence and irreversible damage to the lives of millions of people.”

Taxation Boycott, a tool against military spending in Spain

Five activists from a Valencian antimilitarist platform have resorted to refusing to pay the part of their tax that goes to ‘Defence Spending’. The Spanish state sank 978.06 euros per second into military spending in 2016No és la primera vegada que les antimilitaristes valencianes van al jutjat per practicar l’objecció fiscal

The Treasury continues to claim the deviated money, but as the activists refuse to pay, they have resorted to the Regional Economic Court
from TERE ALBERO
Pepa Petrel, Josetxu Marcos, María Pagán, Santi Almiñana and Maribel Muñoz are the activists from whom the Treasury claims a total of 1,704 euros . In the case of Maria Pagán and Santi Almiñana, they are called for the corresponding part of the money diverted in the last three income statements, but for more than six years Pagán has made the tax objection and its for almost twenty years that Almiñana practices it…….

The fiscal objection is the way in which many members of the group Antimilitaristas-Movimiento para la Objeto de Consciencia (MOC), and others from all over Spain, show their opposition to the great amount of money that is allocated to the Ministry of Defense budgets, or hidden under other ministerial items, to be spent on the military ….

The internationalist vocation of the group of antimilitarists-MOC, leads them to collaborate with organizations such as Mujeres por la Paz, Colombia, or Mujeres de Negro contra la Guerra, to which they enter the money of the fiscal objection. But each objector can divert the money to the fight she wants….

It is not the first time that Valencian antimilitarists go to court to practice tax objection, in 2013, two activists resorted to the High Court of Justice of the Valencian Country (TSJPV) to claim their right to tax objection, but the institution ruled against them forcing them to pay the money diverted….

The history of the anti-militarist group-MOC in Valencia is the heir to all those struggles against compulsory military service that began in the eighties; But at the moment, the activities that they carry out are usually non-violent resistance and civil disobedience workshops, or direct actions against NATO tanks in the Port of Sagunto, or the NATO base in Bétera….

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